suit

gooood morning. last night i finally had a quiet night in, so i cracked my knuckles, set up my trusty tripod, and took a few outfit shots so that i could put the "blog" back in "blogger." i can't believe how fast this week went - friday through sunday were spent basking in sweet, sweet music (highlights: flava flav and chuck d leading a 2 hour long public enemy set that was absolutely incredible, and probably the best show of the weekend; jeff magnum playing pretty much every neutral milk hotel song you could ask to hear with the aid of nothing but an acoustic guitar. i may have shed a tear or two.) i also probably consumed my body weight in beer and tacos, so i haven't much felt like getting dressed up and looking at my feet for photos. and as for cooking - monday night i had popcorn for dinner, tuesday chinese takeout, wednesday i went out for korean bbq with some friends and last night i ate leftover storebought pasta. so really, this week has been nothing to write home. . . or you guys. . . about.

one of the things i really wanted for fall was a vintage-feeling suit. i looked at a couple of shops near my office, but nothing was quite right (for the fit or the price) - i spotted this one on asos and patiently waited for the price to drop. it did - plummet, in fact - so i snatched it up and plan on wearing the heck out of it during this not-quite-hot-but-not-quite-cold weather.




blazer: asos
shorts: asos
shirt: thrifted, similar here
shoes: miu miu via ebay (and about 5% of the original price)

my hair is a source of much frustration these days. it kind of wants to do this "i'm a dandelion!" frizz thing at the top of my head, instead of lying down all nice and smooth and happy; as a person who's basically shunned a hairbrush for most of my life, i don't really have the skills necessary to tame it so i've taken to spraying it with a water bottle every morning, smoothing it down, and going. it's working okay, but what i end up with at the end of the day is. . . well. . . what you see here. anyone have any tips? how do you get your hair smooth and calm?

this weekend is shaping up to be a good one: tonight sam and i are going to see the ides of march, and tomorrow i'm making a bunch of cookies for a friend's engagement party then going to a yom kippur dinner at another friend's place. sunday there's a street fair not too far from my apartment that a few of us are going to hit up.

what about you guys? big plans? thanks so much for all the comments - i'll be finally getting back to everyone today, with my apologies for the delay!

xo audrey

busy bee

hello there! a really quick catch-up post: a friend of mine has been in town since saturday, and will be until this coming monday, so i haven't had much of a chance to take photos or write posts. what we have been up to:

- finishing up & dropping off a wedding cake, just in the nick of time

- delighting in the fact that there is now a ramen bar less than 1 block from our apartment

- swigging whiskey & water from a water bottle, waiting in line for SNL

- laughing a little too hard as a result

- having brunch, walking all over williamsburg, and having craft beer in a bar with a shuffleboard table

- having 4 old friends in my apartment for fish tacos

- sneaking our own popcorn into drive

- spending an evening with elie tahari, and having the man himself tell me, "that dress was made for you." (his dress, sadly. not the one i came in.)

tomorrow after work we're packing up and heading down to new jersey for the all tomorrow's parties festival; i'm crossing my fingers for dry, warm-but-not-too-warm weather. will any of you be there, by chance?

and now, a photo of me, looking like i've never seen a camera before.



dress: peter jensen for UO
slip: thrifted
shoes: jill stuart
brooch: thrifted

i'll do my best to get some photos in before i take off for the weekend, and i'm hoping to try my hand at some festival street-style photography while i'm in asbury park.

until next time,

xo audrey

artichoke onion soup for the soul

hello everyone! i am sitting in my kitchen, typing in the warmest part of my apartment - right by the oven, which is propped open and heated to 400. apparently the pipes in my basement chose this weekend to crap out on me, so my radiators are ice cold; sam and i have decided to stomach an extra large gas bill, rather than shiver in our own apartment.

the past weekend had its highs and lows; i usually have fridays and saturdays off, but had to work this saturday, making for an extra short weekend - most of which i spent in front of a computer, desperately trying to remember photoshop shortcuts as i worked on wedding invitations. i did find the time to make us a good, thick, wintry soup - it was easy and delicious, and perfect for these cold winter nights, so i thought i'd share the recipe.



2 cans of quartered artichoke hearts
1 medium yellow onion
3 cups chicken broth
2 T butter
2 t ground fennel
1 t dried thyme
1/4 c heavy cream
salt
pepper
olive oil for drizzling
parmasean or similar cheese for crisps

so - start the butter melting in a big pot. a soup sized pot. slice the onion into thin strips, then add it to the butter; saute until good and caramelized, stirring as needed. add the artichoke and saute for a few minutes. add enough chicken stock to cover the onion and artichoke and then some. add the spices, then the cream, and salt to taste; either use an immersion blender or a regular one to puree them until you can't anymore. put your oven to 350, and grate the cheese into little piles on a silpat or piece of parchment, and bake the cheese for 10-15 minutes, or until browned. serve the soup with a drizzle of olive oil, a grinding of pepper, and a cheese crisp or two. and a grilled cheese and pastrami, if you're me.

and an appropriately yellow and green outfit for the day!



dress: thrifted
tights: from mi madre
shoes: madewell
hat: from a weird little antique shop outside of atlanta, ga
necklace: jewelry shop near atlanta (a fish, therefore, a gift from sam)

well! my smoke alarm is going off for no reason whatsoever, so i guess it's time to sign off. stay warm, and much love!

xo audrey

it's the holiday season

that andy williams christmas song, a favorite of sam's, has been stuck in my head for about a week and a half now and is driving me absolutely insane.

i wanted to be festive for the holidays, so i pulled out this vintage silk blouse that has been in my mending pile for weeks and finally sewed on the couple of buttons it was missing and paired it with this j crew skirt that's another favorite. these tights happened to be in my stocking (stockings in my stocking!) and matched the outfit perfectly, so i added them, plus some beads i thrifted on christmas eve, and voila! christmas outfit 2010.



blouse: vintage, etsy
skirt: j crew
tights: HUE - gift from sam's mom
booties: madewell
beads: thrifted

now to figure out my new year's outfit. i have a dress i was planning on wearing, but i think it's going to be reasonably warm in tennessee and i have been looking for an excuse to pull out the lorick tutu i bought awhile ago. . . i think some dress-up is in order.

stay warm!

xo audrey

s'more lollipops and passionfruit macarons

hello! i hope everyone had a great week. i got to cater an event for tory burch on wednesday, so i spent most of monday and tuesday in my kitchen, piping passionfruit buttercream into bright orange macaron shells and melting chocolate on a bain marie for s'more lollipops. the theme of the party was resort - beach and ski wear - so they wanted one "hot weather" dessert, and one "cold weather" - and this is what i decided to make for them.







the macarons are old news for me by now (although i love them as much as ever,) but the s'more lollipops were something new. i can't take credit for the idea - i found a few versions of this on etsy, when trying to figure out how on earth to turn a s'more into a lollipop - but i was really delighted with how they turned out. i used a mixture of milk and dark chocolates and then carefully piped the tory burch logo onto each and every one.

after all that, i get to dress up and go to the event itself, which is just the cherry on top. i used to get so nervous before attending these events - i get so intimidated by a room full of stylish women i've never met - but now i've started planning my entrance so i get there with keiko or christine and it's really a blast. we started off the night at juicy couture, headed over to tory burch, and then christine and i snuck into a perfume even at anthropologie, pawed at the pretty things for awhile, and went home.

s'more lollipops

2 bags chocolate - one bag dark, one milk, or however you like it
one big bag marshmallows (or you can make your own)
graham crackers, ground to a fine powder in a blender
lollipop sticks (you can find them here)

line up the marshmallows and pierce them with the lollipop sticks; put a pot with an inch or so of water in it on a burner on its lowest setting, and then set a metal heat-safe bowl on top of the pot to make a double boiler. add chocolate and stir it alot; don't try to melt it quickly by turning the heat up high, chocolate burns very easily. put the graham cracker crumbs in a bowl nearby. dip the marshmallows in the chocolate, shake off the excess, and roll them in the graham cracker crumbs; set them on a sheet pan prepared with parchment paper inside and let them set up in the fridge. ta-da! cute and tasty. great for a holiday party. just sayin'.



and an outfit! it's been so long! i wanted to wear something comfortable and easy, since i knew we'd be walking to and fro; and i snagged this skirt over the thanksgiving weekend at a great thrift store near sam's house in connecticut and have been wanting to work it into an outfit somehow. i wore a belt across the shirt with a brooch attached - i just thought it needed a splash of color, and it was too big a belt to be worn at the waist.

shirt: urban outfitters
skirt: thrifted
belt: j crew factory outlet (now online on weekends!)
tights: we love colors
brooch: courtesy of accessorize
shoes: thrifted

ttfn. but not for long! shop updates! gift guides! unbirthdays!

xo audrey

what i wore [a frighteningly honest before and after.]

hello! happy wednesday! i've decided that blogging is much like talking to my mom on the phone. (which i just did! hi mom!) as my days pass (and as the world turns) i think of all these things i want to talk about and then by the time i have a chance to call (or write) i've forgotten most of them or i'm so overwhelmed by trying to catch up that i put it off some more. no more! this week is so full of goodness that i'll have tons to say, and i'd better get right down to it.

okay, first, an outfit post. it's been quite awhile. i've been wanting to do this for awhile but usually sam is here to distract me when i get home; today is my early day, so i was home early, sweaty and tired, and decided to do a before and after. because the truth is, the left side is what i'm wearing most of the time; i have to have my hair pulled back, comfortable, closed-toed shoes on, and some throw-away shirt and top so it can be covered in chocolate and cake batter. so truly, this is what i wore:



left:

shirt: uo
pants: gap
shoes: toms
bandana: thrift shop

and on the right - tonight is the beginning of a week's worth of good times. i'm meeting a friend to hit the town for a bit before going to a book party for ps i made this.

onesie: anthropologie, swapped with my friend linsey a summer ago
bowtie: shoe clip from my mom
shoes: vintage, etsy'd
bag: birthday gift many years ago


next time on homerunballerina: pavement! the beach! belle and sebastian! macarons! stay tuned!

xo audrey

hot child in the city

i don't mean to suggest that i am "hot," at least not in any sense except the sweaty, sleepy, sticky one. my apartment has no air conditioning (which i suppose is normal in new york, but it shouldn't be) and sam attempted to do me a solid and install an ac unit yesterday only to discover after lugging the thing a couple of states, up a flight of stairs and into the back room, that it doesn't work. so, i sweat.

i also jump. i write this while lying on my bed (and, to be honest, catching up with lost [i have no tv so i had to wait for hulu,]) and my favorite bedspread is falling apart, releasing little bits of feather all over the place; the fan i have set up keeps blowing them and out of the corner of my eye it looks like my bed is being consumed by white, furry spiders. oh, hello summer. nice to see you again.

but, not to complain. i know i've been away awhile; so what have i been up to? mostly just the usual - working, sleeping, hangin' with my man, cooking, hanging, shooting hoops. yes, sam and i have taken to playing some one on one, and i even win a few games! which sounds impressive when i tell you my fiancé is 6'2" and much less impressive if i told you what my handicaps were. but i digress. i am coming to terms with the fact that having a job where you a. start at 7 am, b. work for 8 hours with no breaks, and c. spend the entirety on your feet, lifting things, mixing things, and pulling things in and out of a hot oven, you are bound to be pretty damn exhausted after, and that's okay. so i'm going to continue to blog, as flakey as i may be, when i really wanna blog. and i thank those of you who've stuck with me.

thursday night is my friday and this past one i had a dinner party for a few friends i hadn't seen in awhile; i spent the days beforehand preparing a menu (with much input from sam,) and then making as much ahead of time as i possibly could, which led to much more enjoyment of the party itself and much less time spent in the kitchen than usual. the food turned out pretty damn good, too: a beet salad with a mini tomato tart, homemade basil goat cheese ravioli, and acai berry ice cream. of course i had a few drinks while the night commenced (ahem) and didn't take as many photos as i should have, but what can ya do.




man, sloppy pictures. i hate that. the dessert was so pretty, too.

perfect pasta.

1 1/2 cups semolina flour
2 eggs
2 T water
2 T olive oil
1/2 t salt
some all-purpose flour for dusting

whisk together the semolina flour and the salt. make a well in the middle and add the eggs, water, and oil; mix with a wooden spoon until it's all come together. add a bit of water or a bit of flour as needed; it should stick together but not be super sticky. wrap in plastic and let it rest for about 20 minutes, then knead it on the ap flour for about ten minutes, until it's stretchy and elastic. use a pasta machine (i have a pretty cheap-o one from amazon.com and it works awesome) to cut into whatever size and shape you want. you can also easily add a couple of tablespoons of chopped herbs of your choice to this for a bit of flava.

and now for clothes! huzzah! i must apologize for the silly pose. most of you have blogs - do you ever try to take an outfit picture only to realize after the shutter's gone off that the only picture that isn't blurry or otherwise unwatchable is the one where you're doing something kind of stupid? this is one of those.



i've been looking for a good pair of shorts for awhile now; somehow i've ended up with only very brightly colored and VERY short shorts from last summer. i happened into a j crew outlet this past weekend and found two pairs that are great colors and the perfect length, so i'm hoping to get a lot of use from them. this is a dress i bought back in the dorms in college off a roommate of a friend of mine, and then shortened - unfortunately, a bit too much, so now i am forced to wear it as a kind of tunic-top. the necklace is one i've had since high school, i think, but broke awhile back; it was always shorter than i wanted it so today i just attached another necklace to the opposite side and voila, problem solved. i am noticing my overuse of semicolons, by the way, and i swear to do something about it in the next post.

dress: purchased off a girl in college
necklace: off a small and now out-of-business shop called kaleidescope in carbondale, illinois
shorts: j crew outlet
shoes: pour la victoire

all right. that's enough from me for now, although i promise more soon - i have a pretty free week ahead and lots i still want to share.

xo audrey

at last

i finally, finally fixed this dress into something i like. i splurged on this months ago and have worn it less than a handful of times since; i'd decided i would diy it into something i would actually wear, but i was too chicken to actually cut into it. until today.

it went from this:



to this:



a nice little crop-top for the summer. i sewed the back closed, too, so i can finally wear a bra with it (hooray!)

and to top it all off, the skirt is still functional, and better than ever! i'm sure i'll be posting that soon.

that's all for now. hope you're enjoying your weekend!

xo audrey

*edit* holy shit, i'm pale as can be. the first picture was in the middle of last summer. i need sun, guys. if my transparent skin can take it.

spades

hello! i hope everyone had a lovely weekend, mine was possibly more tiring than the week preceding it. let me try a little catch up here.

thursday night, my friday, i had a couple of friends from class that i hadn't seen in ages over and we had a good, old-fashioned sleepover. i made spaghetti and meatballs and we drank. . . well, pretty much whatever we could get our hands on (it was my friday!!) and talked and talked until the wee hours of the morning (or like midnight, maybe) and then went to bed and slept in. met up with a couple of friends for brunch in williamsburg and then a jaunt around the neighborhood for a bit before racing home to clean up and make potato spinach curry.

saturday my dad was in town, so sam and i headed up to midtown to see him speak about rock and roll. (my dad is the coolest.) we grabbed drinks and dinner after, then sam and i snuck to one more bar (a belgian beer place) before heading home to meet another friend, whose birthday it was, for one final nightcap. sunday morning i had to work, brutal as usual, but then came home and took a nice long nap before baking a completely french meal for some friends who came over (one who is french and therefore provided an excuse for me to cook everything with lots of butter.) i made a leek, mushroom and goat cheese galette; swiss and spinach soufflés; and strawberry napoleons with coconut-white chocolate pastry cream.



this is what i wore to my dad's talk/dinner after; it reminded me of kate spade's clothing line, which i LOVE but will never be able to afford.

dress: boutique in greenpoint
sweater: thrifted
thigh highs: american apparel
shoes: pour la victoire!

and now the food!








recipes to come. hope everyone had a great [fashion[ week, more from me soon!

xo audrey

oeuf

i cracked 307 eggs at work today. the bakery where i work was featured on the food network friday evening, and as a result orders for a particular brownie have been pouring in for the last couple days. yet still when i came home today i wanted to bake, and with eggs, so i cracked six more and set to work on a beet, leek, goat cheese and pine nut tart that i've been thinking about making for a few days.

















i'm sorry i got a bit camera happy here, but my gosh, isn't food just gorgeous?


i made it down to philadelphia thursday night, in time for dinner at a mexican place where they provide fresh squeezed juice and you bring your own tequila. we spent most of the next day wandering around the city, hitting record shops and thrift stores (to the girl who asked where i thrift in philly - i stopped at one salvation army oxford near 5th, which i basically walked right back out of, and then actually crossed the bridge to camden to a giant one right there, where i didn't have a ton of time but found a bunch.) before grabbing a quick banh mi sandwich in chinatown at qt sandwich. philadelphians - they are $4.95 and they are fresh, filling and delicious. after that we met up with a few folks at national mechanics where i had one too many 'raging bitch' belgian beers and ended up arguing about outsider art with a relative stranger. the next morning was a bit rough, but that's what breakfast buffets are for! and we headed to a flea market where i scored this gem:


other than that, the flea market was pretty much a bust; i've been to really wonderful antiquey fleas, like the one in the west loop in chicago or dumbo, but this was the sort with a guy selling boxes of cereal for $2 out of the back of his pickup and after awhile in a place like that, when you aren't finding any hidden treasures, you just start to feel depressed. so we headed outside of the city for a bit, to another thrift store where i found a few things and wasted several hours.

in related news - i should have my etsy up and running no later than next week. i'm hoping to get some things posted before this weekend, but we'll see. . . the to-do list for this week is a bit disturbing at the moment.

today:



shirt: betsey johnson dress
brooch: flea market
skirt: thrifted
shoes: devotte
purse: etsy


there is no non-clichéd way to do so, but i really want to take a second to thank everyone so much for reading, and especially for all the incredibly kind emails/links/comments lately. i can't express how touched and flattered i am that you read at all, much less take the time and trouble to write. i hope everyone has a wonderful week, i should have more soon - oh! and i am going to start having a twice-monthly food column over at glasses glasses; my first will be up this wednesday, and will feature the recipe from this tart i made today. (i'll try to cross-post, the recipe at least.)

xo audrey

light as a feather

hello! it's been a busy few days here, and i'm in the midst of a great apartment clean-up, so i'll make this quick.

one - i got a job! a really cool one! more on this as the story develops. (i am terrified of jinxing it.)

two - got a few new things in the mail in the last couple of days, and this outfit incorporates two. i broke down and bought the guy baxter dress, but i really like the underslip better than the two parts together - i wore the slip yesterday (christine from mystylepill came over and i made us breakfast, black pepper shortcakes, potato galettes, scrambled eggs and fresh strawberries and blueberries) and i'll post that soon. the lace overslip has kind of weird sleeves that are tricky to wear, but i think i figured out a way that i like it.



dress: guy baxter, with a slip under from victoria's secret
belt: salvation army
shoes: kennedy holmes' etsy

back to work for me.

xo audrey

scallops, sliced

a lazy, cold thursday holed up in my apartment inspired me to remix my pink scalloped aka dress yesterday afternoon. i have this red corduroy button down dress that i bought on sale at anthro a year or so ago but have found it a bit cumbersome to wear - it's a size or two too big for me (i have this retarded problem at anthropologie where i'll buy things too big if they are super on sale, telling myself i'll take them in [which i sometimes do] or find a way to make them work as is [which i may have finally done with this pairing.]) i've had a half-cocked notion of turning this dress into a dressy overcoat of sorts, since it unbuttons all the way; i really love pink and red together, to such a degree that i actually replaced the little buttons that came on this dress (they used to be fake-fancy black and rhinestone dealies) with red heart buttons that i found on etsy.



under dress: aka, from gilt
over dress: anthropologie
shoes: alice and olivia for payless
headband: UO
belt: salvation army

the radiators are on in my apartment and despite the cold, it is a bit too toasty in here. so i'm going to take this warm laptop off my lap and get into the day.

xo audrey

scallops

last night i went out for wine with christine from mystylepill. ladies and gentlemen, do not be fooled. this girl is slight, sweet and all smiles, but she will drink you under a table. after two hours and a few glasses of white wine, i was unable to form sentences while christine was outlining quantum theory on our cocktail napkins. okay, not actually, but she walked home with grace while i poured myself into a cab. christine, i tip my raccoon tailed hat to you. you are one classy lady. and you can really handle your veltliner.

today's outfit definitely draws its inspiration from the lovely erin at calivintage and her recent scalloped blazer. i browsed my closet today and found two scalloped items that haven't seen much airtime and decided to pair them together. this blouse is stupidly hard to wear - the sash is a little weird, it's too high-waisted for most pants and skirts and too frilly to wear with anything fancy or anything too casual. i like this pairing, though, and think i'll go back to it in the future.



shirt: vintage, picked up from old hollywood
dress: aka, scoured from gilt
shoes: alice & olivia for payless, ebayed
necklace: ebay

xo audrey

leftovers

hallo! today i bring you a post made up of things that have been lying around my apartment - either in my fridge or the back of my closet - for some time now.

i got home from job hunting at around 7:00 pm, a bit chilled, tired, and starving. i set out to use some of the copious amounts of leftover food in the refrigerator after days on end of cooking meals from scratch. the first course was easy enough: a variation on the carrot soup recipe i posted a couple of weeks ago. i made a big batch this weekend and had plenty left over, so i reheated one portion on the stove, added some balled and sliced granny smith apple, and set that aside. next to use up the rest of the apple, some of the cheeses taking up space in the fridge after a (very disappointing) lasagna last week, and some wheat sourdough bread about to go bad. sautéed the bread, added ricotta, prosciutto, tomato, and granny smith apples, and voila! a nice little soup and sandwich combo. i added a hard pear cider for good measure.



post-dinner i retreated into my bedroom for some reading until my friend amy arrived from portland. in new york for one night only for work, we spent the evening drinking wine. . . plenty of it. . . and chatting until she had to head to her hotel. as a strange result of this copious wine consumption, i woke up this morning and checked my email to discover that i had somehow purchased a raccoon-tailed hat off etsy late last night. i have no regrets.

today a dress i bought almost a year ago at a pop-up flea market in chelsea; a belt i bought at urban outfitters that has but once seen the light of day; and a hat i picked up at an odd shop in my neighborhood and can't quite figure out what to do with. it perches on my head in such a way that it kind of looks like a bonnet; i considered naming this post "little miss muffet" because that's what i feel like in it.



dress: flea market
belt: UO
shoes: alice and olivia for payless
hat: small antique store in fort greene

i'm out again to paper brooklyn with my resumé. have a lovely afternoon, everyone!

xo audrey

a zebra can't change its stripes

hello and happy fallback morning! did anyone else not have a clue the time changed last night? sam and i had set an alarm for ten am (pretty standard for a weekend morning) which we usually snooze for at least an hour before actually arising, but this morning it seemed really easy to get up and get the coffee going. now i know why.

it couldn't hurt that our night last night was a pretty tame one. i grew up without trick-or-treating - my parents thought of halloween as "the devil's day" and we were forbidden from getting dressed up and partaking in the all-important childhood ritual; as a result i still have a rather sour taste in my mouth for halloween, and it seems i skipped the years of my life when i could have been something fun like a disney princess or the empire state building and skipped to being surrounded by peers dressed as a slutty ________. last night at a party there was a girl dressed as a slutty troll doll.

but, in the spirit of the hoiday, i went through my closet in search of an idea for a costume. i'd debated being a 60's stewardess, rita from arrested development, and betty draper; in the end i decided to keep it simple, and go as a zebra.



jumpsuit: h&m
tail: a sock and a few pieces of an old stocking
shoes: enzo angliolini

i didn't have a short sock and my ears were a bit too pointy so i think i may have ended up looking more like a cat. one guy at the party said i look like hobbes (of calvin & hobbes)'s sister. i kind of liked that.

sorry, again, for my infrequent postings: excuses include that the light was out in my dressing room and i couldn't figure out how to change it (seriously) and that my wisdom teeth are coming in and i. am. dying.

much love!

xo audrey

clear and sunny and definitely meatballs

hello! happy wednesday. had a friend over for dinner last night and although i didn't even stay up that late, i didn't get much sleep and i find myself quite foggy this afternoon. regardless, a friend is in town and a couple more are coming for dinner, so i must persevere! making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner (meatless balls for sam) and garlic bread from homemade baguettes, with a pecan pie for dessert. there is more than a small part of me that wishes it was 1950 so i could do this for the rest of my life.



sweater: thrifted from the warehouse in camden
pants: thrifted from the warehouse in camden
boots: 80%20
necklace: thrifted many, many years ago

i'm maybe going to try to sneak in a nap while i let the bread rise and the sauce simmer.

have a lovely evening!

xo audrey

pickle

one of the many things i've been wanting to do once i got my own apartment (and kitchen) was to start jarring fruit and veggies, making my own jams, and pickling things. yesterday was sunny and warm so i went on a neighborhood stroll and bought some carrots and daikon root and stopped at the hardware store and bought a bunch of jars. my first project was to pickle them in an attempt to recreate banh mi, delightfully light and refreshing vietnamese sandwiches. i made the baguettes in the early afternoon and then, while the dough was rising, sliced up the veggies and bottled them up with some white wine vinegar, warm water, salt and sugar. i then made some homemade mayonnaise and a coconut milk corn soup and proceeded to enjoy the meal with more than my fair share of wine and beer.



the corn soup i kind of made up as i went along, but it turned out really delicious; i've become obsessed with soup recently because my sister bought me an immersion blender for my birthday last year and it makes it so easy to turn anything into a soup. i start with a veggie and basically just add stuff until it tastes the way i want it to. as a result i'm usually full by the time the soup is done, but i always find room for dinner.

coconut corn soup

2 ears of fresh corn
2 TB butter
one can of coconut milk
about a cup of vegetable broth
a few strands of saffron
plenty of salt
white pepper
cayenne

i cut the corn off the ears and put them in a large pot with the butter. sauté the corn until it is pretty soft and tastes about right; salt to taste. i added some cayenne at this point, then poured in the coconut milk and let that simmer for awhile. add the vegetable broth and continue to simmer. add about 4 strands of saffron, a couple pinches of white pepper, and as much cayenne as you want to give it some spice. you can blend it at this point or just let it be a little chunky. salt more to taste and voila! i served mine with a sprig of cilantro and a slice of avocado.



i ordered this sweater off gilt a few months ago, after stressing over whether to order and extra small or a small. at the last minute i went with the small and i've regretted it since - the sweater is just a littttle too baggy to be cute, but not quite big enough to wear as a dress. i compromised by wearing it with these very loud sparkly leggings from american apparel. i am not a proponent of leggings as pants, but if the sweater is long enough to cover your rear, i think exceptions can be made.

sweater: cacharel, gilt
leggings: american apparel
shoes: pour la victoire

to everyone who asked about the thrift store i visited while in philly, i asked sam and apparently the shop was in camden, not philadelphia proper. it was definitely a somewhat sketchy neighborhood, but isn't that always where the bargains are? the name of the thrift store was 'the village. check it out if you have the chance.

until we meet again,

xo audrey